Re: Learning about WITH RECURSIVE - Mailing list pgsql-sql

From Tom Lane
Subject Re: Learning about WITH RECURSIVE
Date
Msg-id 144.1257379441@sss.pgh.pa.us
Whole thread Raw
In response to Re: Learning about WITH RECURSIVE  (Richard Broersma <richard.broersma@gmail.com>)
List pgsql-sql
Richard Broersma <richard.broersma@gmail.com> writes:
> Actually I'm still confused.  I must me missing something.  When I
> manually following the directions of:
> http://www.postgresql.org/docs/8.4/interactive/queries-with.html

> I get the following when I try:

> WITH RECURSIVE t(n) AS (
>     VALUES (1)
>   UNION ALL
>     SELECT n+1 FROM t WHERE n < 100
> )
> SELECT sum(n) FROM t;

> (1) --initial non-recursive working table

> (1) UA (2) = (1,2) --new(1) working table

> (1,2) UA (2,3) = (1,2,2,3) --new(2) working table

> (1,2,2,3) UA (2,3,3,4) = (1,2,2,2,3,3,3,4) --new(3) working table

You're confusing the working table with the final output.  In this
test case, the working table contains exactly one row after each
step (except after the last, when it contains no rows).  That one
row is also added to the result, but we don't use the whole result
for the next iteration of the recursive term.
        regards, tom lane


pgsql-sql by date:

Previous
From: Richard Broersma
Date:
Subject: Re: Learning about WITH RECURSIVE
Next
From: maboyz
Date:
Subject: Converting T-SQL to PostgreSQL